<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>If?  What If? by fringeperson</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27572443">If?  What If?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/fringeperson/pseuds/fringeperson'>fringeperson</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Don't copy to another site, Gen, Old Fic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 20:54:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>415</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27572443</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/fringeperson/pseuds/fringeperson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'm sure if Stark still made weapons," Steve said. If Stark still made weapons. IF Stark still made weapons. What is the Iron Man suit, exactly?</p><p>~</p><p>Originally posted in '12</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>34</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>If?  What If?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>In my defence, I hadn't seen the Iron Man movie where Tony tells people that the Iron Man suit *isn't* a weapon, when I wrote this.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Well I'm sure if Stark still made weapons he'd be neck deep-” Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, aka Capsicle, was spouting off as they all started getting techy about the Tesseract being weaponised.</p><p>“If?!” Stark cut him off sharply, angrily, and suddenly had a lot of attention on him. “What the hell do you think the Iron Man suit <em>is</em><span>, Rogers?” he asked. “I still make weapons by the </span><em>shit-load</em><span>, I just don't </span><em>sell</em><span> them any more. Especially to trigger-happy military organisations. And for the record, no. If Fury or anybody else had asked me to make this kind of munition,” he said, gesturing to the schematic of the alien-tech-based bomb that he'd pulled up on one of the screens in the lab. “I'd have said not only 'no', but 'hell no'. Turning it into a power-source to run the whole world on? Sure, I'll get behind that, but even though </span><em>I still make weapons</em><span>, I would </span><em>not</em><span> have weapon-ised </span><em>that</em><span>.”</span></p><p>
  <span>There was a moment of stunned (and not entirely </span>
  <em>happy</em>
  <span>) silence that followed Tony's minor rant that had ended with him right up in Roger's face, mad enough to spit but adult enough to know it wouldn't be nearly satisfying enough to do so.</span>
</p><p>“Why?” Natasha asked softly into the tense silence. Her tone was genuinely curious.</p><p>“<span>Apart from it being alien tech?” Tony returned. “Well, there's the big thing about not knowing a </span><em>damn</em><span> thing about what the Cube is capable of. I'd want to study it for a good </span><em>long</em><span> time first, see how it acts as an energy source, like I said already. I might – </span><em>might</em><span> – use some of what I learned from studying the cube to improve the munitions I've got already, but the power of the Cube itself? Asking for trouble, playing with unknown alien tech that way. That, and I'm a </span><em>genius</em><span>, not an </span><em>idiot</em><span>,” he added firmly. “Point Break over there has said the Cube shouldn't be on Earth. He's from the same place the Cube is. He may not be a scientist, but he'd be the authority on stuff that's from the same place he is. Only </span><em>idiots</em><span> don't listen to resident authorities. Question them, maybe, investigate in order to validate from an unbiased source, but not </span><em>ignore</em><span>. Thor, however much or little he knows about the thing, </span><em>is</em><span> the resident authority on the Cube, so I'd listen to </span><em>him</em><span>.”</span></p><p>“Thank you, Stark,” Thor said softly, stunned by the way the entire conversation had swung around.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>